The Gambia

The Gambia is a country in West Africa, the smallest country on the African mainland, surrounded on all sides by Senegal except for its western coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, its elongated territory straddling both banks of the lower Gambia River, which runs through its center and gives the country its distinctive shape; it covers 11,300 square kilometers. Banjul, an island city formerly called Bathurst during colonial rule, is the capital, though Serekunda and Brikama are larger urban centers; the population reached 2,422,712 at the 1 May 2024 census, a 30.45 percent increase over 2013. Arab traders documented the region from the ninth and tenth centuries, and Islam was introduced soon after; Portuguese explorers arrived in 1455, and the British Empire established colonial control from 1765, with independence from the United Kingdom coming on 18 February 1965. President Dawda Jawara governed for 29 years before a 1994 military coup brought Yahya Jammeh to power; Jammeh's 2016 electoral defeat by Adama Barrow, whose swearing-in occurred in January 2017 after an ECOWAS military intervention, restored civilian rule, and Barrow and Vice President Muhammad B. S. Jallow lead the unitary presidential republic today. The Gambia's economy centers on farming, fishing and tourism, and English, adopted under British rule, is its sole official language.